


string from your tether unwinds

by JudeAraya



Category: Phandom/The Fantastic Foursome (YouTube RPF)
Genre: AU, Dan's Neck Thing, M/M, Smuff, blind dates gone right, cute men looking for love, fourth dates gone very right
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-25
Updated: 2020-09-25
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:26:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26646730
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JudeAraya/pseuds/JudeAraya
Summary: “I can’t believe I’m twenty eight and necking on my couch,” Dan said.“I can,” Phil said with a laugh. “Because I am. Now focus.”How sometimes, communication and the right partner can make all the difference.
Relationships: Dan Howell/Phil Lester
Comments: 40
Kudos: 145





	string from your tether unwinds

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is 100% me indulging a need for a Dan and Phil discovering that Dan's Neck Thing can be a Good Thing. Insert AU modern dating communication feels oneshot smuff. 
> 
> All the thanks to [Puddle](https://intoapuddle.tumblr.com/) for being _so_ supportive and enthusiastic. I think I’d trash half these things I write if it weren't for her. Thank you, thank you, thank you to [Nat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/chiridotalaevis/pseuds/chiridotalaevis) (chiridotalaevis on Ao3 and quercussp on tumblr) for the last minute SPAG and support!

Their first date was one of those ‘friend of a friend’ blind dates. The kind that Dan of a few years ago—hell, Dan of a year ago—would have had way too much pride to even consider. But he was lonely, damit. The dating scene was fucking impossible these days, what with the swiping and the navigating things like who wants a fuck, who wants a date, who’s fishing for something on the side while secretly married from someone, who, god forbid, actually might want a relationship. Then there was the ghosting. If there was _anything_ Dan couldn't handle, it was the ghosting. Mid-conversation just as he’s begun to think there might be potential. After a date was planned but then never confirmed. _At_ a fucking date.

The worst was being stood up. _Who even does that?_

People who use phone apps to date, that’s who.

He’d be nostalgic for the days when people met each other organically, like, _in person_ , except he worked from home and hated the bar scene. Dan had a handful of semi-close friends, a wonderfully pulled together, aesthetic apartment, and deep desire for some kind of intimacy that went beyond one-time hookups. Which wasn’t something he would generally admit to unless under duress or, like, tits up on wine. As he had been after a bottle or two with Anthony and his new girl of the month—Susan?—at some sort of trendy place Anthony was reviewing for the magazine he was working for. Like Dan, Anthony did freelance writing. They’d met at an internship years ago; Anthony was one of the few friends Dan had managed to hold onto over the years.

Turned out Susan had a friend, Bryony, who had a friend named Phil, who Bryony was also looking to set up. Dan had no idea how this all translated to anyone knowing if he’d been _compatible_ with Phil. But again, wine drunk and trying not to mope about the most recent ghost-gate he’d endured (two dates, weeks of conversation and then… nothing), Dan was willing to try almost anything. Even if only to prove to his friends that there was something fundamentally unlikeable or undateable about him, because then they’d shut up with the constant advice. Plus, then he’d be able to give in to the full melodramatic inertia of his inevitably love-less life. 

Dan went into his first date with Phil anticipating failure, already rueing the loss of the couple of hours it would take for this guy to realize he was wasting his time on Dan.

Instead, four hours and one location change—restaurant to a local gay bar Phil knew—Dan was reluctantly exchanging numbers with Phil. Reluctant only in that he didn’t want the night to end. But Phil had work in the morning and it was going on midnight. Laughter and connection aside, adult responsibility _was_ a thing. Unlike Dan, Phil didn’t work from home.

“I’ll call, yeah?” Phil said, fiddling with a drooping quiff Dan really wanted to mess up. “Or well, text probably. I’m sometimes shit at the phone.”

“Whichever,” Dan said, only a little breathless because Phil’s fingers were touching Dan’s as he returned his phone, and then his hand was coming around Dan’s waist and he was being pulled in for a just right, not too long and perfectly firm hug. Dan couldn’t even think of the last time he’d been hugged by someone who wasn’t a friend or family. He certainly couldn’t name a time he’d been hugged like _this_.

Fuck, he must be hard up for affection if a hug left him tingling and breathless.

* * *

Dan: hows fri?

Phil: family game night, maybe sat?

Dan: I thought ur family live at the Isle?

Phil: online

Dan: fuck thats so cute

Dan: that was too much wasn’t it

Dan: it isn’t cute its hot

Dan: fuck that’s worse

Phil: Dan. Shut up.

Phil: I like that you think it’s cute. Most guys think being this close to my family is weird. Or dorky.

Dan: I like weird and dorky

Phil: good. Bc I do too.

Phil: so....Saturday?

Dan: It’s a date

* * *

For their fourth date, Dan invited Phil over for takeaway and a marathon game night. Theoretically, a great idea. More casual, less pressure. They both loved video games and should they want to take things anywhere...else....they wouldn’t have to worry about being in public or any kind of awkward _wanna come to mine_? sort of shit. Theory be damned, however, because in reality, Dan was freaking out. He’d cleaned his apartment down to the baseboards and then fretted over the potential lack of warmth or hominess this might convey. He’d wasted more time arranging a throw blanket on his couch to make it look used than he did on his hair, which was saying a lot.

Then again, he already knew Phil liked his hair. Because Phil had told him so. On their last two dates and at least one late, late, late night texting conversation that had left Dan embarrassingly giggly and hopeful.

It was just—they seemed so compatible. Everything was so _easy_ with Phil. The conversation about deeper stuff, laughter, even a back and forth bantering rapport. Dan had really only ever been in one serious relationship. Otherwise the narrative of his dating life had been him trying to figure out the fine line between getting to know someone he thought might have potential and sleeping with them too soon. He and Phil hadn’t even kissed—unless a lingering kiss on the cheek after their last date counted—so perhaps it was delusional of Dan to think that simple hugs actually conveyed physical compatibility. 

Call him crazy then, because he’d never, _never_ felt the way Phil’s hugs made him feel. The thought of kissing him made his heart jump and his face flush. Should Phil be amenable, Dan planned on kissing the shit out of him. 

Dan was still artfully tossing his blanket on the couch when the bell rang. He wiped his hands against his too-tight pants, fiddled with the curl over his forehead to try to get it just right, and buzzed Phil up. 

“Hey, you,” Phil said, smile bright and hands full of a garish pink bakery box. He fumbled with his coat and the box, which Dan took off of him when Phil almost dropped it. He’d rather have helped Phil out of his coat, if only for the opportunity to touch Phil in any way. 

“What’s this then?” 

“Vegan cupcakes!” Phil said, finally untangling himself from his coat. 

“What?” Dan lowered the box to stare at Phil. His cheeks were flushed from the March chill and his hair damp, since it was a misty one tonight. 

“There’s a place down the street from my apartment. I even ate one, to test them. They’re really good.” 

“I really want to kiss you,” Dan blurted, then felt himself flush with mild embarrassment. 

“Well then,” Phil said, taking the box and setting it on the floor. “C’mere.” 

Dan let himself be pulled in by Phil’s sure hand around the back of his neck. He absolutely, positively did _not_ have to stop himself, a twenty eight year old man, from swooning when Phil kissed him with soft confidence. Phil was the first to pull away, and despite the assuredness of his touch, he looked about as affected and flustered as Dan felt. Chemistry. Right. _Definitely_ not a problem then. 

Dan was two second from giving in to the urge to push Phil against the wall to his entry for more kisses when the sound of the buzzer startled them both. 

“That’ll be the food,” Dan said, smiling sheepishly. “If you want, the kitchen is just up the stairs to the left, you can put the cupcakes in there while I take care of this?”

“Sounds good,” Phil said. 

* * *

Dinner was, as all their meals had been, wonderful. Phil was smart and funny, all wild gestures and charming oddness Dan related to. Not because Dan was necessarily either of those—his humor tended more toward sarcasm and self-deprecation—but because Dan had always felt a bit out of step with the rest of the world. Phil seemed like the kind of guy who might be out of step with others too. But maybe, hopefully, in step with Dan. 

After Dan beat Phil solidly at Mario Kart for a good half hour, they decided to switch to Crash Bandicoot, trading the controller whenever one of them lost. Phil was competitive and loud enough when playing that Dan found himself slipping easily into a more authentic, less guarded version of himself. That was to say, he swore to shame a sailor and fell (threw himself) off the couch after one particularly frustrating death. 

“Stop laughing,” he cried, but Phil just clutched his sides and continued. 

“Fuck, you’re adorable, you know that?” he said when he finally got himself under control enough to take his turn. Dan felt himself go red and warm—well redder and warmer—and had to actively stop himself from snatching the controller out of Phil’s hand so he could pull him down onto the floor for messy kisses, fast touches, and some in the heat-of-the-moment confessions. 

He really liked Phil. Like. _Really_. 

Still, Dan managed to hold himself together admirably up until Phil lost a round _just_ before a checkpoint. 

“No! Nonono, that’s not fair!” he cried out to the soundtrack of Dan’s laughter, before biting the controller in frustration. 

_Biting the controller in frustration_. 

“Fuck it,” Dan said, much louder than he’d intended. 

“Wha-” 

Dan was pretty sure Phil’s face was on it’s way to startlement, but, what with how quickly Dan had crawled into his lap, threaded his fingers through Phil’s hair and begun to kiss him the way he’d been wanting to since their first date, he never got there. In the space of a breath Phil went from passive surprise to surprisingly assertive, hands sliding up under the hem of Dan’s jumper so that his gripping hands were skin-to-skin with Dan’s sides. 

However much he wanted to, Dan didn’t desperately grind down on Phil. Because he was an adult, damit. 

Because he was human, however, he didn’t stop himself from meeting Phil’s own rolling hips once Phil got going. It didn’t hurt that Phil was actively pulling down to meet his movements. Dan’s hands slid from his hair and down his neck until they were clutching Phil’s shoulders. 

“This all right?” Phil whispered, breaking away to kiss under Dan’s ear. 

“More than,” Dan said. “Just not my neck, okay?” 

Phil, lovely human that he was, didn’t even pause to ask why, opting to bite Dan’s chin lighty. He tugged at the hem of Dan’s shirt and Dan nodded. He’d barely breathed before Phil’s thumbs were skirting his nipples and his lips and teeth were working over his shoulders beautifully. 

“You,” Dan managed to say between gasped breaths. He had Phil’s button up shirt bunched in grasping fists. Phil giggled, tongue poking out between his teeth, and pulled Dan’s hands away lightly. Fuck it was endearing. Dan pushed Phil’s fingers from the buttons of his shirt impatiently, trying to unbutton it quickly, shifting back to help Phil shrug out of it. Dan couldn't say the last time he’d slept with someone, but generally he was no slouch at getting beautiful men undressed. Desperation was only fueled by how _much_ he liked Phil, how much he already trusted him, making his fingers fumble more than he would have liked. Definitely not smooth, but together, they got the job done in the end.

“Fuck, you’re fit,” Dan said, directing Phil’s hands back to his hips, dipping in to bite Phil’s earlobe.

“Don’t hear that often. But thank you. No, come back,” he whined when Dan reared back.

“What d’you mean?” 

“Forget it,” Phil said, easily, eyes blown wide so their lovely blue was dominated by his pupils. “ _I’m_ fine with neck kissing, so please, feel free to get back to that.” 

Dan laughed and did as instructed, groaning when Phil’s fingers dipped low on his back, working the tiniest bit under the waistband of his skinnies. 

“These are really fucking tight,” Phil observed. Dan smirked and then sucked lightly at the juncture of Phil’s neck and shoulder. 

“You’re welcome,” he said. 

“Haha,” Phil said. “While I’ve loved staring at your bum in them, I’m pretty interested in seeing it without them. If you are, that is.” 

Dan pulled back. “Why, Phil Lester, are you asking a nice boy like me to take my pants off on the fourth date?” 

“Shut up and get naked,” Phil said. He pulled Dan back in for a rather messy, biting sort of kiss that would be gross with anyone else but that made Dan positively _ravenous_. 

Somehow, at some point, they managed to shift, Dan slipping off of Phil and back onto the couch. They’d slowly shed their trousers—slowly because there were so many pauses for kissing, but also because they both happened to be wearing the sort of clothes that took some effort to get off—and were grinding and making out like teenagers on the soft, wide give of the couch. 

“I don’t know the last time I made out with someone like this,” Dan admitted when Phil paused to adjust himself between Dan’s legs, hitching one of Dan’s legs up around his hip. 

“I’d say not since I was a teenager, but I wasn’t out until I went to uni, so,” Phil said. “You can’t judge though! I guess I was just a late bloomer.” 

“Mate, I don’t care when you bloomed, I’m much more interested in how well you’ve bloomed. Which you definitely seem to have.” 

“Seem?” Phil caught Dan’s lips with his, sliding his hands under Dan’s back so that they were wide and warm against his shoulder blades. Everything like this was Phil: the smell of his shampoo and the slight scent of his sweat, the wet smack of their kisses, the slow-delicious building pleasure running like honey throughout Dan’s body. 

Dan broke away from his kiss with a gasp, perhaps intending to come back with a witty or sharp or funny retort, something to slow down the situation a little. This was all so _good_ , but it left Dan feeling so much. Maybe too much. Physically, but also deeper inside. Dan wasn’t used to feeling so exposed with someone else during sex. Their hips were moving and Dan’s fingers were digging into the soft flesh of Phil’s hips when Phil, maybe forgetting himself, kept kissing anything he could reach, including Dan’s neck. 

“ _Oh!_ ” Dan shuddered and closed his eyes. A hot thrill coursed through his body. 

“Shit, sorry I forgot,” Phil said, pulling away. 

“No, that was-I mean, um, yeah. No.” 

“What?” Phil squinted down at him. Dan closed his eyes and took a deep, shaking breath. 

“Fuck, I don’t know,” he admitted. “I—I’ve just never liked that. I mean, when I was with-” he broke off. Talking about his ex, whom he’d been with for years, didn’t seem prudent in this position. Plus he just really didn’t like to think about it. It hadn’t ended well. “I didn’t like it, and I never-” 

“But that felt good, just then?” Phil asked. He wasn’t pushing, just curious. 

“I think so? I don-” Dan gasped again, then bit his lip hard, holding in a deep moan when Phil moved back in toward his neck. He kissed Dan’s neck with tender softness.

“Talk to me,” Phil said softly, breath a warm puff against Dan’s damp skin. He shuddered. “Tell me if it’s okay, or what you like.” 

“I can’t believe I’m twenty eight and necking on my couch,” Dan said. 

“I can,” Phil said with a laugh. “Because I am. Now focus.” 

“Shut up, rat,” Dan said, squirming away from the feeling of Phil’s breath on his skin. “But okay, if we’re gonna communicate like grown ups while acting like kids, I’ll say the kissing was nice but that’s weird.” 

“Bad weird?” Phil confirmed. 

“Yeah. It’s...I’ve always gotten this creepy feeling when someone touches me there. Like it’s too much but in a not good way.” 

Phil rolled off of Dan and wedged himself between Dan and the back of the couch, propping himself up on a throw pillow. Dan turned over to face him. 

“Is that how it was when I kissed you?” 

Dan shook his head. Phil looked at him for a long, long moment, before touching Dan’s lips softly. 

“What if I do this?” He ran his finger over the edge of Dan’s ear, dipping into the hollow behind it and then down a slow, tingling path along the column of Dan’s neck to his shoulder. Dan shivered. 

“Better. Okay,” Dan managed. He was having trouble quantifying his own reactions, the way the too-much of the touch didn’t feel like too-much when it was Phil’s fingers. No one had ever stopped to _talk_ to Dan about his neck aversion, much less take the time to test the limits of it. 

“May I kiss you again?” Phil asked. It was laughable really, how slow and polite he was being, considering how obviously hard they were, both of them straining against what turned out to be hilariously matching underwear. 

“Yes,” Dan said, as quietly as Phil had asked. He was desperate for more touch, for closeness, for _anything_ that would end in mutual orgasms. The blue of Phil’s eyes was mesmerizing though, and Dan was caught in this small spell, a bubble cast around them in the quiet of his apartment, just two bodies breathing and shifting and on the precipice of something Dan hadn’t a name for. 

Phil pushed himself up onto his elbow and kissed Dan’s neck softly. He didn’t speak, but nosed behind Dan’s ear, a silent _this okay?_. Dan nodded. Phil kissed him again, a bit harder. Dan arched, bowing his body so that it was pressed up against Phil. His cock throbbed and he knew Phil could feel it, just as he felt Phil when Phil pressed back, again and then again. He put his fingers in Phil’s hair, pulling him in closer. Phil opened his mouth, sucking a delicious kiss that Dan felt through his _whole, fucking body_. Dan’s fingers and toes went numb and warmth that had been gathering in his pelvis began to coalesce suddenly. 

“Phil I-I’m-” Dan said, desperate and on edge, but not in time, because just as he spoke Phil was scraping his teeth against Dan’s wet skin and then he was coming, the shocking pleasure of it like a hardwire direct from his neck to his dick, a button pressed Dan didn’t even know he had. 

“Wha-” Phil started as Dan began to come down, shaking and unsure. He wanted to be embarrassed, really he should be, but instead he felt naked and fond and safe. Dan did the only thing one might do when soaked in such feelings. He kissed the question right off of Phil’s lips and slid his hand into Phil’s pants. Phil was long and wide and throbbing hot against Dan’s palm. He had only a few moments to bless his wide hands, which were perfectly fitted for Phil’s cock, before Phil was thrusting up into his touch, grunting and jerking. It was uncoordinated and probably the worst handjob of anyone’s life. Only when Phil came, his eyes squeezed shut and his mouth and beautiful damp lips fell open and he tensed into the pleasure with a whimper and a surprised little laugh. So it certainly didn’t _seem_ like it could have been all that bad. 

Dan was still shaking by the time Phil came down. His hand was sticky with come and his pants were even worse. “I feel like I should apologize,” he said. Phil hummed into a soft kiss before pulling away, as Dan’s words slowly sank in. 

“Um, that was amazing, what are you on about?” 

“Phil, I came in my pants.” 

“Dan, that was honestly so hot, I literally cannot even. Hey, are you cold?” He shifted gears abruptly, noting that Dan was still shaking. 

“No. Maybe. I don’t know why—this is, wow. I just-” Dan closed his eyes. He wanted to burrow his face against Phil’s warm skin, to hide and to breathe and pull himself together. He wanted to be held through it all. 

“I’d say this might be forward, but seeing as we’re both covered in come, I’m going to risk it,” Phil said. Dan opened his eyes and caught Phil in another one of his endearingly stupid grins. “Could we maybe take this to your room? Where there’s more room. And maybe a bathroom on the way. Or a spare pair of pants if you’re about to kick me out?” 

“Phil,” Dan spoke into the sweet dark of the crook of Phil’s neck. “Do I seem like I want to kick you out?” 

“Well, no,” Phil said. “But you never know these days. LIke I said, this kind of stuff doesn’t usually happen for me.” 

Dan kissed Phil’s skin softly, a quiet apology for each man who had been stupid or blind enough not to catch and hold this funny, charming, smart man. Who was also an fantastic fuck who took his time giving pleasure and communicating through it all. 

“The world is full of dumbasses,” Dan stated. “And I can’t say I’m not stupid, but I’m not _that stupid_. Forget the pants. Come to bed with me.”

Phil laughed, then kissed him once, a sharp, no nonsense kiss, before beginning the process of untangling their bodies. Dan had noted his clumsiness before, but he could say with certainty that their fourth date was the first time in the many, many years to come, that he fell victim to it himself. 

It was okay though, because Phill so sweetly kissed his bruised ass that night, and never hesitated to kiss it, or any other part of Dan’s body whenever asked, again. 

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoyed, sharing is caring! You can reblog on tumblr [here](https://judearaya.tumblr.com/post/630245626439958528). Comments are always so loved and appreciated :D
> 
> Title from Jimmy Eat World's "Sweetness"


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